President Donald Trump speaks during an event about the relocation of U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado to Alabama in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, in Washington. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military conducted a strike early Tuesday against a vessel carrying drugs from Venezuela, President Donald Trump said.
“We just, over the last few minutes, literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Tuesday’s strike appeared to be the first such military operation in the region. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the news of the strike in a post on X, calling it a “lethal strike” and saying the boat had departed from Venezuela and was struck in the southern Caribbean.
The U.S. military conducted a kinetic strike against “positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists” in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility, Trump said in the post on Truth Social hours after speaking. The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in international waters transporting illegal narcotics. The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed, and no U.S. forces were harmed in the strike, Trump said.
The president posted a 29-second video of the strike. It was unclear exactly how the strike was conducted and which U.S. asset fired the shots.
A senior defense official, on the condition of anonymity, said in a statement the military conducted a “precision strike against a drug vessel operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization,” with more information to come.
“Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America,” Trump said. “BEWARE!”
The U.S. has deployed warships in the southern Caribbean with the aim of following through on Trump’s pledge to crack down on drug cartels.
Seven U.S. warships, along with one nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, are either in the region or expected to be there soon, bringing along more than 4,500 sailors and Marines.
While U.S. Coast Guard and Navy ships regularly operate in the southern Caribbean, the current buildup exceeds the usual deployments in the region.
